REU Students Honored at Annual MACUB Conference

Summer 2013, Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) students were honored on October 26, 2013 at the 46th annual Fall Metropolitan Association of College and University Biologists (MACUB) Conference.

MSU Summer 2013, Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) students were honored on October 26, 2013 at the 46th annual Fall Metropolitan Association of College and University Biologists (MACUB) Conference. The students, Paul Tomasula, Rutgers University; Myla Ramirez, Montclair State University and Jewel Lipps, Southern Methodist University were granted the Third Place Poster Award in Ecology at the Conference. The three students were part of the REU program this summer 2013 sponsored by Montclair State University (MSU) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The objective of the REU program is to cultivate highly motivated undergraduate students in transdiciplinary environmental research in hydrology, geology, environmental chemistry and ecology. Their research project studied the effects of urbanization on water quality in two New Jersey Rivers, the Passaic and the Flat Brook. This was accomplished by sampling water at test sites distributed along each of the rivers. Water samples were tested for nitrogen and phosphorus using flow injection analysis. By comparing the results of water quality for the Passaic and the Flat Brook, it was determined that urbanization results in significantly lower water quality.